"Orpheon wishes to open your eyes and ears to the marvelous world of string instruments of the Renaissance, the Baroque and the Classical Periods. The collection now contains over 170 instruments (viola da gamba, viola d'amore, violin, viola, violoncello, violone, baryton) and historical bows dating mostly from 1560 to 1780, all restored to their original playing conditions and placed at the disposal of members of the Orpheon Orchestra, Orpheon Consort, and professional musicians and university students from all over Europe for concerts, recordings, contests and study purposes. Its owner, Prof. José Vázquez of the University for Music and the Performing Arts Vienna holds that it is the living acoustical heritage - the sounds that these instruments produce for those living today - that interests us, and not their mere decorative flair as objets trouvés from aristocratic residences of our distant past. We wish to hear what these instruments have to say and we wish to learn from them about the manner of performance of their musical heritage from the Renaissance, the Baroque and the Classical Periods. "

"REED is an international scholarly project that is establishing for the first time the broad context from which the great drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries grew. REED examines the historical MSS that provide external evidence of drama, secular music, and other communal entertainment and ceremony from the Middle Ages until 1642, when the Puritans closed the London theatres. Although the project is based at Victoria University in the University of Toronto (an institution renowned for its scholarship in medieval and early modern culture), REED's internal governance is provided by an Executive Board of senior scholars in early drama and related fields. Its advisors and collections editors are drawn from Canada, the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. " ...

“The history of the Swiss Museum of the Organ is the result of in the double safekeeping of important goods of the musical and architectural patrimony of the nation: a wonderful collection of antique organs showed in a barn post which is nine centuries old. As soon as you enter the museum, you will run your eyes over the hydraulic organ (about 246 before J.-C.), passing by instruments such as the Elysée organ, the one of the Emmental, the one in cardboard, the barrel organs, the flute clocks, the open organ,the harmoniums, until the great organ of Radio Lausanne. ..“

Welcome to the recorder Museum. Recorder Museum was created in collaboration with many friends, recorder, players and collectors. It is a museum for old instruments. It is a reference book for many recorders of all generations flute. It is an informative walk through the company and the flute recorder makers. ..“

“Trace the history of music with a visit to Denmark’s most comprehensive collection of instruments from all over the world at the Danish Music Museum, close by the gardens of Rosenborg Castle.

The museum’s evocative exhibitions provide a historic journey through the fascinating world of European musical instruments, with a special emphasis on the period from the renaissance to the beginning of the 20th century. See such curiosities as the amoeba-shaped violin and the giraffe-piano. Or visit one of the many permanent thematic exhibitions focusing on for example the raucous guitars of the mid-60’s Danish rock bands, or the ingenious creations of Danish instrument-makers.

The museum has a constantly varying series of special exhibitions. Throughout 2006 the special exhibition is dedicated to The Danish Piano – from piano to forte. ..” Visit website for more information. (ed.)

"Home to the famous Jean de Boizard organ (1714) the Saint-Michel abbey has welcomed for the last several years, the most sought after artists of ancient music. The music coproduced by radio France MUSIQUE with the choreographic collection called TEMPERAMENTS, confirms the baroque destiny of the abbey in harmony with the site. The ancient and baroque music festival The festival has its roots in the restoration of the prestigious historical organ (1714) of the abbey church and the artistic activity that followed as a result since1984. The festival was started in 1987 with the important decision by Radio France and the Conseil General of the Aisne departement : Every Whit Monday the train of FRANCE MUSIQUE radio would, for a whole day of music, take several hundred Parisian music lovers to attend two concerts transmitted live on radio. " See website for more information. (ed.)

“The International Music Council (IMC), founded in 1949 by UNESCO, is the world's largest network of organizations, institutions and individuals working in the field of music. The International Music Council promotes musical diversity, access to culture for all and unites organizations in some 150 countries worldwide in building peace and understanding among peoples of all cultures and heritage. …”

“Pianosromantiques is dedicated to French grand pianos built before 1850, particularly those of the great firms Boisselot, Erard, Pape and Pleyel. The idea is to create a photo database of the instruments disseminated in different private or public collections around the world, with a brief history of their makers. I hope this virtual museum will contribute to the appreciation of these rather neglected instruments (compared for example to the Viennese pianos), that a lot of pianists have never had a chance to play because of the scarcity of well-restored examples. The admiration that composers such as Liszt (Erard and Boisselot), Mendelssohn (Erard) or Chopin (Pleyel) expressed towards their French pianos should be motivation enough to rediscover these instruments, whose touch and sound shed fascinating light on the romantic music composed on and for them. ..“

CIMCIM is the acronym for Comité International des Museés et Collections d'Instruments de Musique (International Committee of Musical Instrument Museums and Collections)
CIMCIM is one of 25 international committees of ICOM, the International Council of Museums, and was established in 1960.
CIMCIM aims to promote high professional standards in the use and conservation of musical instruments in museums and collections.
CIMCIM meets every three years during the ICOM General Conferences and in each of the other two years organizes a special meeting, usually including symposium papers and museum visits. Meetings are held in different countries of the world: recent venues have included Austria/Slovakia/Hungary, Norway, U.K., Belgium, Canada, Japan, U.S.A., Netherlands, Germany and Argentina. ...

"The Museo dell’Arpa Victor Salvi, located at Piasco, at the entrance to the Varaita Valley, the area that used to be the old marquisate of Saluzzo, in the district of Cuneo, was inaugurated on 3 December 2005 and is managed by the Associazione Museo dell’ Arpa Victor Salvi.

It is the very first museum entirely dedicated to the harp, its history and music, in a multi-functional building with exhibition area, auditorium and historical archives now being prepared.

The Museum, promoted by the Comunità Montana Valle Variata, the Fondazione Victor Salvi and the company Salvi N.S.M. s.p.a. has been financed by the European Union F.E.S.R., the Ministero dell'Economia e delle Finanze, the Regione Piemonte Direzione Industria-Turismo–Economia Montana, by G.A.L. (Tradizione delle Terre Occitane I.C. Leader AZ. 3.1) and N.S.M. s.p.a.

Work started in July 2004, the Musuem was inaugurated on 3 December 2005 and was opened to the public on 28 January 2006. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

“The Stockholm Music Museum has been in existence for more than 100 years. During this time over 11,500 objects have been acquired. The musical instrument collection makes up the larger part of the collection, but there are also many works of art.

Please note that only a small fraction of the collections are on view at the museum. Persons with a special interest in particular instruments, experts and researchers are welcome to visit the museum's storage, by special appointment, where the entire collection can be viewed.

We are planning a new instrument exhibition in which a much larger number of our instruments will appear. We hope it will open in the not too distant future! ” .. .

The mission of Svenskt visarkiv is to collect, preserve and publish material concerning instrumental folk music, folk songs and traditional music in general, from the end of the 16th century up to the present. The archive is also responsible for material on the history of jazz in Sweden, and since 2005, we have the added responsibility for music of ethnic minorities in Sweden.

At Svenskt visarkiv we are proud to work in close cooperation with different kinds of music customers, both active musicians, researchers and the general public. The archive has, during its 60 years, gradually expanded its responsibilities. Beginning with a focus on song texts and ballads, and later instrumental folk music and eventually Swedish jazz, we now include multicultural musical expressions found in Sweden. Today the collections are quite extensive - recordings, manuscripts, sheet music, interviews and photographs. And they are growing day by day.

Music is an important part of our history and a key to knowledge about people's lives. This is a knowledge everyone should have access to. Ensuring this access is an essential task for Svenskt visarkiv.

“Welcome to the Bate Collection, one of the most magnificent collections of musical instruments in the world. The Bate has over 2000 instruments from the Western orchestral music traditions from the renaissance, through the baroque, classical, romantic and up to modern times. More than a thousand instruments are on display, by all the most important makers and from pre-eminent collectors. ..“

"This site is devoted to tracing and cataloguing all surviving clavichords made in the various countries of Latin America before about 1920, with photos and descriptive details. Clavichords were introduced into Central and South America, along with other European musical instruments, by the conquistadores, and they continued to be made there right through until the late nineteenth century if not later. Some of them are of particular interest because they preserve elements of the style of construction of the original sixteenth- and seventeenth-century models. So far 19 instruments have been traced; it seems highly likely that there are more to be discovered, and I hope the web-site will encourage researchers in the region and elsewhere to report their findings. The web catalogue will be continuously updated to incorporate new information. (Peter Bavington) " ... Visit website for more information. (ed.)

"Hatchlands, a property of the National Trust, stands in a handsome, wooded park, landscaped by Humphrey Repton, and is just 23 miles from London. Splendid rooms designed c. 1758 by Robert Adam are furnished with the Cobbe Collection of Old Master paintings and composer instruments.

Alec Cobbe formed the collection of some 50 historic keyboard instruments during the last forty years, his purpose being to assemble instruments by makers who were highly regarded or patronised by composers. Eighteen of the instruments were actually owned or played by some of the greatest creators of classical music, such as Henry Purcell, Johann Christian Bach, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Fryderik Chopin, Franz Liszt, Georges Bizet, Gustav Mahler and Edward Elgar - the largest group of such composer-related instruments to be seen in one place anywhere in the world.

The instruments are maintained in playing condition and are used for concerts. In 1997 they were given to the Cobbe Collection Trust, a charity which aims to enable musicians and audiences to hear music sounding as nearly as possible to what the composers themselves would have heard."

“Copac is a freely available library catalogue, giving access to the merged online catalogues of many major UK and Irish academic and National libraries, as well as increasing numbers of specialist libraries.

Copac has c.36 million records, representing the merged holdings of:

members of the Research Libraries UK (RLUK). This includes the catalogues of the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, and the National Library of Wales / Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru.

increasing numbers of specialist libraries with collections of national research interest, as well as records for specialist collections held in UK academic libraries.

A full list of the contributing libraries, with links to each library web site, is available on our libraries page. We are continuing to add new catalogues and the list of those waiting to be added is available on our forthcoming libraries page.“

The collections were principally established for musical instrument research and academic instruction, but hands-on research for publication, making technical drawings, building replica instruments, demonstrations, recording etc. are actively encouraged and facilitated by MIMEd staff. The Museums have a strategic aim to foster organological teaching and research through full participation in the University’s academic activity. As formulated in MIMEd's Mission Statement, ‘the purpose of the Collection is to promote the study of the history, construction and functions of instruments of music and all cognate matters, the furtherance of research and the propagation of knowledge of instrumental history. The Collection will maintain a substantial permanent collection in relation to these objectives'.

The emphasis of the Collection is on instruments that are no longer in regular current use and the collecting policy is to acquire instruments when they fall out of use rather than to collect instruments by contemporary makers. The Collection thus covers the period from the 16th century (the earliest period from which examples are available for acquisition) to the 20th century (the most recent date from which instruments can be regarded as historical).

Many of the instruments are still playable and through an established concert programme and as a regular venue during the Edinburgh International Festival, the Concert Room provides a contemporaneous setting for performances, within which the audience can be seen as the interface between the University and the public. For instance, St Cecilia’s Hall is the only place in the world where it is possible to hear 18th-century music in an 18th-century concert hall played on 18th-century instruments."

Explore the British Library allows you to search both the British Library's website and the Library's collections. You can also order many collection items. Explore the British Library makes it easy for you to find what you are looking for.

Explore the British Library searches over 56 million items:

Circa 13 million records for the Library's holdings of books, journals, newspapers, conferences, maps, scores etc. (i.e. the same collection that you can search using the Library's Integrated Catalogue)

37 million journal article records, from our electronic table of contents system

Thousands of records for British Library web pages

5 million records of Library's Sound Archive items

Web Archive links (freely available on the web)

Thousands of electronic journal and book records and hundreds of database records (most subscribed*; some freely available on the web)

More than 450 Research datasets records (freely available on the web)

BNB records, for items held in the British Library collection.

* Owing to licensing reasons, subscribed electronic items are only available from British Library workstations within the Library's Reading Rooms and Business & IP Centre.”

“Finchcocks is a fine Georgian manor set in a beautiful garden, surrounded by parkland. It now houses a celebrated collection of over 100 historical keyboard instruments, of which more than forty are in full working order. It makes a wonderful day out for all the family. ..“

“The Handel House Museum at 25 Brook Street was home to the great baroque composer George Frideric Handel from 1723 until his death in 1759. The only composer museum in London, this landmark address is where Handel composed some of the greatest music in history, including Messiah, Zadok the Priest and Music for the Royal Fireworks.

The Museum celebrates Handel's life and works, displaying portraits of Handel and his contemporaries in finely restored Georgian interiors and bringing live music back to his house. There are frequent music rehearsals, weekly concerts and special musical events in addition to regular displays and exhibitions that bring Handel's world to life.“